A journalist who managed to get under the skin of Robert Downey Jr. so that he walked out of an interview has revealed that he’d been told before that the actor might lose his cool and storm off.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy – well known to viewers in the UK for his work on Channel 4 News – has explained how the viral incident was mentioned as a possibility before he even met the Iron Man star.
You can see the spark that caused this whole thing to ignite below:
After their ill-fated interview in 2015, on a junket for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Downey called Guru-Murthy a ‘syphilitic parasite’ and a ‘bottom-feeding muckraker’ and said he only regretted not terminating their exchange earlier.
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The presenter asked: “The reason I’m asking you about your past is you’ve talked in other interviews about your relationship with your father and the role in all of that of the dark periods you went through, taking drugs and drinking and all of that.
“I just wondered whether you think you’re free of all of that or whether that’s something…”
That was all Downey Jr. needed to hear.
He interjected: “What are we doing? Are we promoting a movie?”
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That was it – he was off.
Apparently the weirdness started before the pair even met, though.
Speaking on Unfiltered with James O’Brien, Guru-Murthy explained: “The room was like a fridge, it was 17 degrees and they’d had to bring in an extra air-conditioning unit,
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“I said ‘this is ridiculous, it’s horribly freezing cold,’
“They said ‘no, this is what he [Downey Jr.] likes’,
“I said to the junket [employee] ‘are you sure? This is so uncomfortable, it’s not pleasant at all,’
“She said ‘you don’t want him to walk out, which is what he did last week’.
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“I don’t know who it was, but whoever it was didn’t reveal it.
“What happens in that is the bosses come in and say, ‘well this obviously isn’t what you’re going to air is it?’
“You say ‘oh yes, it is’.
“They say ‘well, how can we stop it?’
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“You can ring the boss of Channel 4 for all I care, he’ll tell you the same thing.”
Host O’Brien then chimed in: “Which is part of the reason why you love your job because a lot of the people who are journalists don’t have that kind of support, do they?
“[They say] ‘you p***ed off Robert Downey Jr. we’re going to take his side’.”
Guru-Murthy then continued: “I actually hate the Robert Downey Jr. thing in that because of social media it’s one of the most watched things I’ve done and it’s such a small part of my career.”
After the interview, Downey Jr. gave his own interview to radio DJ Howard Stern in which he said: “I just wish I’d left sooner.
“What I have to do in the future is ... give myself permission to say, ‘that is more than likely a syphilitic parasite, and I need to distance myself from this clown.’
“Otherwise, I’m probably going to put hands on somebody, and then there’s a real story.”
He added: “I’m one of those guys who is assuming the social decorum is in play and that we’re promoting a superhero movie, a lot of kids are going to see it.
“This has nothing to do with your creepy, dark agenda that I’m feeling, like, all of a sudden ashamed and obligated to accommodate your weirdo s***.”
For his part, after the fact Guru-Murthy claimed: “When Robert Downey Jr.’s PR man rang up asking what we wanted to talk about, we said we had no particular agenda but would ask about the new Avengers superhero movie and his recovery from jail and drug abuse to Hollywood stardom.”
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Topics: UK News, US News, Celebrity, Robert Downey Jr, Film and TV
Tom Wood